A self-service terminal, such as an ATM, may provide banking customers the ability to access bank account information, deposit funds or withdraw funds. ATMs may obviate the need for a banking customer to consult a human clerk. Additionally, ATMs may be located in a variety of diverse locations remote from banking centers.
For example, ATMs may be placed on street corners, in convenience stores, supermarkets or sports arenas. The wide variety of possible locations for an ATM provides banking customers with access to cash and banking account information at convenient public locations.
To provide access to cash and banking account information, the ATM is typically connected, via a network link, to a remote computer (hereinafter “computer”).
For example, an ATM customer may request a withdrawal of an amount of cash. The ATM may transmit a query to the computer asking whether the customer has a threshold balance in an account. The ATM may transmit the query utilizing one or more network links.
Upon receipt of the query, the computer may analyze a repository of banking account information and transmit a response to the ATM. The response of the computer may be transmitted utilizing one or more network links. Based on the response received from the computer, the ATM may dispense the requested amount of cash.
As a further example, the customer may access an ATM to deposit checks. The ATM may transmit or receive images of the checks to the computer utilizing one or more network links.
A network link utilized by the ATM may be shared with other devices. The other devices may transmit or receive information utilizing the shared network link. Each device utilizing the network link may receive or transmit information over the network link independently of other devices.
The network link may be associated with a bandwidth. The bandwidth may limit an amount of information or a rate of transmission over the network link. The bandwidth may constrain an ability of the ATM to timely respond to a customer request.
For example, the ATM may respond slowly to a customer request if there is a large amount of informational traffic traveling on the shared network link. The large amount of informational traffic may not leave sufficient bandwidth for the ATM to timely communicate with the computer.
As a further example, the ATM may respond slowly if the ATM transmits a large amount of information. The large amount of information transmitted by the ATM, together with other informational traffic traveling on the shared network link, may be close to, or exceed the bandwidth of the network link. As a result, the ATM may be unable to respond to a customer request in a timely manner.
Information travelling from to/from an ATM may be routed along multiple network links until the transmitted information reaches the computer. Each network link carrying the information may include a number of connected devices and a respective volume of informational traffic. Each network link may be associated with a respective bandwidth.
It may be difficult to ascertain a current status of a particular network link. It may be difficult to ascertain which network links are utilized to communicate information between the ATM and the computer.
For example, an ATM seeking to transmit information over a network link may not be aware of a number of connected devices, a volume of traffic on a particular network link or a bandwidth of a network link.
Furthermore, a network link may be controlled by a different entity from an entity responsible for operation of the ATM. The entity responsible for operation of the ATM may be unable to monitor a number of devices that share a network link, a bandwidth of a network link or a volume of traffic transmitted on a network link.
Despite difficult to predict conditions on a network link, it would be desirable for an ATM to timely respond to a customer request. It would be desirable, therefore, to provide apparatus and methods for adaptive network throttling.